Rolf Bauerdick

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rolf Bauerdick (2010)

Rolf Bauerdick (born February 2, 1957 in Lenhausen ; † February 26, 2018 in Hiddingsel ) was a German photographer and author . He wrote novels and non-fiction books.

Life

Rolf Bauerdick attended the Rivius-Gymnasium in Attendorn and studied German and Catholic theology for teaching in Münster . After his internship and an unfinished doctoral project in Catholic dogmatics, he became a freelance journalist. He first worked for the Munster newspaper . Bauerdick went on reporting trips to around sixty countries. His text and photo reports have been published in various European daily newspapers and magazines. The report “How little can one live?” About the Roma in Romanian garbage dumps was chosen among the three best reports published in Europe at the 2003 Natali Award, the prize for human rights journalism of the International Federation of Journalists and the European Commission.

For the French translation of his novel How the Madonna Came to the Moon (2009), he received the 2012 European Book Prize from the Esprit d'Europe Association. Bauerdick's photos have been exhibited repeatedly. His photo “Descent into the Underworld” was named “Best PR Photo 2008” by news aktuell .

reception

"How the Madonna came to the moon"

Bauerdick's debut novel How the Madonna Came to the Moon received largely positive reviews. Roland Krüger reviewed the book for Deutschlandradio Kultur and came to the conclusion that the book was “a full, grotesque story, draped lovingly and knowledgeably by Rolf Bauerdick against a historical background.” Hendrik Werner for the world, Jobst-Ulrich Brand, came to similar conclusions for Focus , Roland Mischke for Der Westen and Ulrich Baron for Spiegel Online . In the Berliner Zeitung Brigitte Preissler praised the novel as a “pretty burlesque about the race to the moon” and a “thoughtful parable about survival in a criminal state”.

Volker Hage comes to a different judgment in the mirror . The book is "an ambivalent reading pleasure". "The motifs are wonderfully interwoven", elsewhere "kitsch and cliché spoil the otherwise impressive debut novel."

The work was premiered in autumn 2013 in the Legnica Municipal Theater under the title “The Madonna, the Moon and the Dog” .

"Gypsies: Encounters with an Unloved People"

Bauerdick sparked controversial reactions with his book on the life of the Eastern European Roma , published in 2013 , in particular with some of the positions mentioned in it.

For the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma , the political scientist Herbert Heuss commented that Bauerdick claimed the power to define the members of the minority. He polemicizes, deals selectively with data, has insufficiently researched and places himself in a line of tradition with “self-appointed gypsy experts” of the past. He must be asked how he deals with the comments on his book on right-wing and right-wing extremist websites. Heuss sees Bauerdick as blind to the effects of racism in National Socialist Germany and continues to have an effect in the Federal Republic. Bauerdick himself, however, is “not a racist”.

The political scientist Michael Lausberg reviewed the book in an article on the Watchblog Netz against Nazis and in the Young World . Bauerdick affirmed traditional antigypsy stereotypes in the German population, such as the fact that Roma are “their own fault” for their situation due to “'peculiarities of Gypsy [sic !, Wikipedia] identity'”, such as laziness, lack of willpower, self-pity and fatalism. His description of the Roma is racist, essentialist , exoticizing and romanticizing . He does not try to distance himself from the “normality of his own western culture”. Lausberg puts Bauerdick's use of the catchphrase “ Political Correctness ” in connection with its use in the extreme right .

The publicist with a focus on Southeast Europe, Norbert Mappes-Niediek, accuses Bauerdick of not getting beyond his approach of criticizing “the politically correct hypocrisy and moralizing sayings”. He doesn't even question his "anecdotal evidence" for validity. As a “brilliant narrator”, Bauerdick is “sensitive and honest” with his experiences. The book will not damage it, because no conclusion can be drawn from it. So be it - "that is the whole result that remains after all the narrative and intellectual effort". Bauerdick takes over the usual ideas "about slum dwellers and immigrants from poverty". He has just got as far as one can get if one looks for the secret of poverty in the poor. The journalist Regina Mönch, on the other hand, described the same publication positively in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . She saw in the author a “gifted narrator and intrepid polemicist” who had succeeded in “winning the trust of these outsiders”. It was "a multicolored picture, with garish, shocking highlights on a poverty" that stifled the will to break out and compassion.

The writer Rolf Schneider stated that Bauerdick's statement that he had “made well over a hundred trips to see gypsies in twelve European countries” is not reflected in his book. In fact, only Hungary and Romania appear in detail, but hardly any Bulgaria, Slovakia, France, Poland, Russia, Germany or Spain. The report is partly impressive. "Neither the poverty crime that almost inevitably arises from such a situation nor the often brutal reactions of the affected environment" would be suppressed. Bauerdick chancellates other authors such as Günter Grass , André Glucksmann , Romani Rose and Wilhelm Solms , who would abuse "Gypsies as an object of merely imaginary care" (Bauerdick). For Schneider, the book is “contradictory”, “imprecise and one-sided”, some are “respectable, others dubious”. Klaus-Michael Bogdal's “Europe invents the gypsies” is better read. Bauerdick did not include Bogdal in his literature list.

The journalist Oskar Piegsa saw the title of the book as a “provocation” of common “language rules”. The book is designed as a report, but can be read over large parts as a " polemic ". Andrea Seibel speaks of a “remarkable” book in Der Welt . The strength lies in not wanting to offer patent remedies for the solutions of the problems of the Roma minority, but to describe their real life realistically. Bauerdick's sharp criticism of interest groups such as the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is “understandable”, but it should be borne in mind that self-organizations could contribute to the emancipation and social recognition of an otherwise speechless group. A certain “hegemonic claim” that Bauerdick criticizes is part of it.

Bauerdick's book was received positively in a contribution to the ARD program titled, thesen, temperamente . The self-designation "Gypsy" is used by many members of this minority, such as the filmmaker Lidija Mirkovic . Bauerdick makes “his own contribution”, “to contrast our practiced thought patterns with the reality of life of the gypsies and to readjust our image of an unloved people”.

For the SWR , the journalist and political scientist Carsten Dippel rated the book as "an extremely readable report volume". It is a “passionate appeal to ziganes self-confidence, to a sense of human dignity. At a look that is benevolent, but not naive, but does not judge. "Clemens Hoffmann said in the Eastern European magazine of WDR 5 that the book is" a wealth of experience full of life, described in a language that is unusually bright and rich in images for a non-fiction book ". On B5 aktuell , Sabine Zaplin said that Bauerdick's book was “a big adventure book that is adorable to read” and “a plea for freedom”.

Esther Quicker classifies these and at the same time several other writings from the main subject area of ​​the author in a similar manner, but instead of affirming the alleged freedom and savagery of “Gypsy” existence in their critical deconstruction. An essential part of his worldview is the construct of a region of Eastern Europe like "the Wild West in cowboy films". Bauerdick thus ties in with older western ideas of the Balkans. “Against this background, the role as adventurer and pioneer” that he has taken on emerges “impressively.” Both the deliberate provocation and the blanket and preventive “great vehemence” in dealing with the expected critics go well with this. Bauerdick sees himself confronted with a transnational collective of "politically correct" people, whom he faces as a courageous challenger and lone fighter. He sees a one-sided "victim role" of the "gypsies" in his opponents and then reverses the perpetrator-victim scheme collectively. To this end, he generalized and ethnicized individual individual events without any justification.

The anti-Semitism expert and prejudice researcher Wolfgang Benz comes to a critical judgment when considering the text and the discussion that resulted from it. Bauerdick is "denunciating", spreading "the common clichés" that he aggressively displays, namely "in the self-assurance of those who only know their own horizon as a measure of knowledge". He "bramarbasiere" against anyone who would not suit him, highly sensitive to criticism. Benz regards Bauerdick's writing as a contribution to " Tsiganology ", which he rejects from the bottom up as prejudiced and antiziganistic.

memory

The exhibition “Look & See” in Lüdinghausen in 2020 was a reminder of Rolf Bauerdick's photographic work.

Fonts (selection)

  • Close to heaven. Mysteries, myths, rituals. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, ISBN 3-451-23306-1 .
  • Lourdes . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995, ISBN 3-451-23532-3 .
  • How the Madonna came to the moon. Roman, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-421-04446-5 .
  • Anti-Antigypsyism - The story of a photo that has been declared a "ridiculous gypsy cliché". In: Tsiganological messages. from December 15, 2010, pp. 7-10.
  • Gypsies. Encounters with an unloved people. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-421-04544-7 .
  • Parcels to Mrs. Blech. Roman, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-421-04645-1 .

literature

  • Esther Quicker: Who will tell us? Three authors shed light on the exclusion of the Roma. In: Esther Quicker / Hans-Peter Killguss (eds.): Sinti and Roma between exclusion and self-assertion. Voices and background to the current debate. NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne , Articles and Materials, Vol. 7, Cologne 2013, pp. 116–135.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vita on the homepage .
  2. ↑ Lively insight into journalism. Münstersche Zeitung of March 12, 2010, based on www.muenster.org .
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from October 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Prix ​​du Livre Européen ; see: European Book Prize goes to Rolf Bauerdick and Luuk van Middelaar. In: boersenblatt.net , December 6, 2012.
  5. ↑ Gaana's dwelling hole . In: medium - magazine for journalists . 12th edition. 2008 ( online ).
  6. ↑ Roland Krüger: Happy swan song on socialism , review of Rolf Bauerdicks How the Madonna came to the moon , Deutschlandradio Kultur from December 31, 2009.
  7. ↑ Hendrik Werner: Debut novel - with Madonna to global success
  8. ^ Jobst-Ulrich Brand: Uprising in Absurdistan
  9. ↑ Roland Mischke: For Rolf Bauerdick, evil is stronger than humans
  10. ^ Ulrich Baron: Read out: The most important books of the week
  11. ↑ Brigitte Preissler: Honor rescue for Maria in the moon. In: Berliner Zeitung. February 18, 2010, accessed January 2, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Volker Hage: moon and manslaughter
  13. ↑ Gazeta Wyborcza Wrocław: ukradzione życie wg Raczaka. Legnicka Gazeta Teatralna, October 5, 2013, accessed January 2, 2014 (Polish).
  14. ↑ Herbert Heuss, comments on the book by Rolf Bauerdick: Zigeuner. Encounters with an unloved people, Munich 2013, in: Archivlink ( Memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 305 kB).
  15. ↑ Michael Lausberg: A semantics of danger: Rolf Bauerdick and the extreme right , at Netz gegen Nazis , September 16, 2013, accessed on September 18, 2013
  16. ↑ Michael Lausberg: Questionable Multiplier , Junge Welt , February 20, 2014, accessed on February 27, 2014
  17. ↑ Norbert Mappes-Niediek: It stops somewhere! , in: Nevipe, New Series, Issue 3/2013, pp. 4–5, [1] ; see. also: Norbert Mappes-Niediek: Poor Roma, angry gypsies , Berlin 2012.
  18. ↑ Regina Mönch: In Wolkendorf the time of departure was short-lived , FAZ.net, July 5, 2013 and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July 6, 2013, p. 32.
  19. ^ Rolf Schneider: Unsuccessful approach. Rolf Bauerdick: "Gypsies - Encounters with an Unloved People". Deutschlandradio from June 2, 2013, accessed on September 21, 2013.
  20. ^ Oskar Piegsa: Speech Debate: The Honor of the Gypsies. Spiegel Online, April 19, 2013.
  21. ↑ Andrea Seibel: This life is not funny! .
  22. ^ Title, theses, temperaments : Misery is the gypsy life ( memento from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  23. ↑ Carsten Dippel: Criticism for the SWR (PDF; 29 kB).
  24. ↑ [2]
  25. ↑ Rolf Bauerdick on "Gypsies" ( memento from September 20, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ).
  26. ↑ Esther Quicker: Who will tell us? Three authors shed light on the exclusion of the Roma. In: Esther Quicker, Hans-Peter Killguss (Ed.): Sinti and Roma between exclusion and self-assertion. Voices and background information on the current debate (articles and materials, edited by the information and education center against right-wing extremism in the NS-Dok der Stadt Köln, vol. 7), Cologne 2013, pp. 117–135, pp. 126 f.
  27. ↑ Wolfgang Benz, Sinti and Roma: The undesirable minority. On the prejudice of antiziganism, Berlin 2014, pp. 237–240.
  28. ^ Photographs by Rolf Bauerdick at three locations in Lüdinghausen , accessed on March 21, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Bauerdick, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd February 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Lenhausen
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 2018
Place of death Hiddingsel